The main ideasWhat I propose

The problem

Despite HS2's and other's claims that HS2 will spread London's wealth to the North, it is widely agreed that HS2 is more likely to suck wealth from the North to London.

The solution

The only way to stop this is to link the cities around the Southern Pennines (Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Birmingham, Stoke) into a single city, to be called "Ringby".

At HS2 speeds, the towns of Ringby will be as close as the parts of Central London so it will become "a single city".

This will create "Ringby", a new town, with more people than London, with its separate but linked city centres, a new kind of town living, different from London or Los Angeles. It will have economy and clout to match. To realise its potential it needs political unity.

By its size and central place, Ringby is the natural centre of Britain. It can be the main city of Britain and London still be the political capital in the same way as Amsterdam is the main city of the Netherlands and The Hague is the capital city.

What are the alternatives?

If we do nothing, then London will go on pulling ahead of the rest of the country, giving us a wealthy London, keeping the rest of us poor and resentful. It will split the country.

OR people will migrate to London, with vast overcrowding.

How could we want either outcome?

There is no alternative!

But, it's already being undermined!

The "danger" to London has been foreseen. In 2014 George Osborne set up "The Northern Powerhouse" of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield. Middlesbrough, Newcastle, This is not a natural grouping. The cities of the southern part of the

Ring complained that they were being left out, so in late 2015 he set up the "Midlands Engine".

London's divide and rule policies must be rejected and Ringby must be formed.

Implementation

The trains will be "Channel Tunnel Shuttle" size, seating 3+3 on two decks. This allows trains of the normal British length of 200 Metres to be used and they can be fitted into the normal footprint of British stations.

Seats can be cleared out of parts of the trains at low traffic times and freight put in their place. Such fast transport of goods will be another economic advantage.

Routes

A new route from Euston or St. Pancras (allowing the possibility of through running to the continent) on viaduct over the M1 to a major new out-of-town station at Waterdale where the M1 and M6 meet.

The route goes northward side-by-side with the WCML to Rugby, where it forks west to Coventry, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, and continues northward to Leicester, Nottingham....

No trains terminate in Birmingham, all go through to London, Liverpool, Manchester and beyond, linking them very effectively. This needs an overhead or underground route through Birmingham.

A cut-and-cover tunnel between Kidsgrove and Chatterley allows Stoke on Trent to be served.

"HS3" runs between Manchester and Leeds, "over the top" broadly following the M62 to Leeds to meet the route from Rugby and Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The route to Scotland will be via Middlesbrough and Newcastle. This route goes over much lower ground, includes much more population and is much better value for money than a route going via Carlisle. The route via Carlisle is an "of course-ism" which does not stand up to examination. HS2 has already given it up.

A "Liverpool Circular" service is run, going round all the towns lying around the Southern Pennines.